ACFL Div 1

Our senior team made the short trip to Castledaly on Easter Sunday morning and came away with two league points after what was a hard-fought and occasionally tempestuous encounter.

Athlone had a dream start when Tom Egan finished a good move to the net after 90 seconds, and they added a second three-pointer soon after when Paul Bannon goaled from close range after a Mickey Greene effort had come back off the post. That was as good as it got in the opening stages as the home side settled and, aided by a goal from a quick free and points from the lively Lorcan Dolan, led by 1-7 to 2-1 after 25 minutes. The visitors’ only point in this period came from a Noel Mulligan free, while they were grateful to a Damo Kelly goal-line clearance not to be even further behind. However, they rallied to finish the half strongly and two more Mulligan frees, either side of a point from play from John Stapleton brought them level, before an excellent long-range point from Noel Mulligan in injury time gave them an unlikely half-time lead.

Mulligan started the second half as he finished the first, with a point after 10 seconds of play, and Danny Reid stretched the lead to a goal with a superb point. Two rapid points in response kept the hosts in touch, but further scores from Paul Bannon and Mulligan kept the Blues’ noses in front, before Sam Omukoro tapped home their third goal to put some daylight between the sides. Two more points from Mulligan and another from his midfield partner Stapleton looked to have sown up the points for Athlone, but Castledaly refused to yield and another goal after a short free brought them right back into the game. The gap was down to two points as the game entered stoppage time, and with six minutes added following a lengthy fracas that saw a player from each team sent off, the Athlone defence was forced to dig deep to preserve that lead. Fortunately, they were able to prevent their opponents from creating any further scoring opportunities and instead two more pointed frees from Mulligan, to bring his personal total to 0-10, saw them home on a scoreline of 3-14 to 2-13.